MAGGIE KEITH: In this episode, we go and visit the Wendell Berry Farming Program in Rick's farm where he has and is teaching students to work with draft animals.

RICK THOMAS: Little bit ha, little bit ha.

Ha.

Ha.

Then we head to Foxhollow Farm and Derek and I go out on a ride and visit the cattle on our horses and Lindsey sends us off and then cooks a great meal.

We decided to feature animals in agriculture to show what an important role they play in the entire system of farming.

A lot of people think that maybe working with animals is antiquated, or will never come back, but really, if we want to look at the future of farming, we're going to have to look at more sustainable ways to work with farming and animals is a big part of that.

I'm Maggie Keith and I'm the farmer.

And I'm Lindsey McClave and I am the foodie.

So, Rick is a professor of the Berry Center Farming Program with Sterling College.

He has been farming with draft animals for many years and is an incredible teacher to the students.

Can you tell me about draft animals?

What, technically, is a draft animal?

RICK: Ah, yeah.

So, I consider draft animals to be any animal that is being used for transportation, for forestry work, or agricultural work.

And what type of draft animals do you have here?

We're really blessed in that we have a draft horse, we have a team of mules, and we have a team of oxen.

And then, right now, we have a team of working steers who are being trained to hopefully one day graduate to that great space of being called an ox.

Right here.

Giddy-up.

What is the Berry Center Farming Program?

Right.

The Wendell Berry Farming Program of Sterling College provides farmer education to students who have completed 60 credits of coursework at another institution.

A way to think about this partnership is the college provides the academic programming and the faculty while the Berry Center provides the physical location.

MAGGIE: And we've talked a lot about different types of agriculture-- regenerative, biodynamic, organic.

So what would you say is in line with what the Wendell Berry Farming Program is teaching?

Just good farming?

I think that's the best way to talk about it.

No matter what, if you want to talk about sustainable, regenerative, or whatever current buzzword is floating around, I think we're better off talking about good farming.

And that brings us to good farming for where and for whom.

And what we are looking at is good farming for Henry County, and hopefully, we can do some things, as a teaching institution, on our farm that will allow the farmers in the community to look at and we can make the mistakes and we can develop the systems and then they can come and see them and wonder, "What would this look like on our place?

What if I added sheep to my cattle operation and then what if I grazed them together so that cattle and sheep are now living together and existing over the same pasture ground in a very prescribed way and all of a sudden, I look behind and my fields are improving?"

So, that's kind of something that we can bring to the table.

It's a laboratory, but it needs to make sense for this place and it needs to be focused and that's why we are first starting on our livestock system because that's what has come up here under tobacco.

And so, once we can stabilize our livestock system, then the next thing would be to add don't know.

Forestry is the next piece, really, that's on the table, - after that, don't know.

- Yeah.

RICK: Think it through, pencil it out.

And so, the students are engaged every step of that process from the thinking it through to penciling it out to actually building the systems and then monitoring, "did this work?"

MAGGIE: When we first got here, we were like, "We don't know what we'll do, are we going to be sitting, or standing on something?"

But we are walking beside the animals as they work.

And so, what are the different implements that you use and why in our heads do we think "Oh, you sit behind an animal?"

RICK: Right, and certainly, there's plenty of that, but an awful lot of work is done from the ground.

And almost all of your cattle work is done from the ground.

There's only a yoke connecting those two animals in the bow yoke system.

There are other systems, but in the bow yolk system, you're just using your stick, your voice, and your body positioning to drive your animals.

So, you worked today.

- You worked.

- Yeah.

You actually did some work with next to no experience with draft animals coming in and a couple more days of that, and all of a sudden, you're going to be like, "I can do this."

Like, "I can do this."

"I can start to look at these implements.

I know what farming is.

I know what needs to happen.

I can see how they fit in."

That access point is making this type of farming available to more people than throwing them onto a vehicle, a tractor, that can be pretty scary and intimidating and especially communities of people who didn't grow up around agricultural systems, or learning how to work on tractors as a young person, but the animals somehow break that barrier down.

And the equipment is basic and I can see it.

I don't have to send my tractor to some place far away to get worked on.

I can actually work on this stuff.

So, all of those things are creating access.

LINDSEY MCCLAVE: To be holding the reins of these two very, very large animals that are very much in control, but how you speak to them with the reins and you try to maintain that control through calm.

It was a really interesting experience and I'm very grateful I got to have it and learn from them.

RICK: And right fast for everybody.

After we talked to Rick, we came back to Foxhollow Farm and showed how we use animals in agriculture on our farm.

We're new to bringing horses into our cattle herd and so, it was really fun to see how far we could come with using animals on our land.

So, how do you think horses can be added to our farm and help out?

They're a nice addition.

The horses and cattle work well together.

The cattle are a little bit more at ease with a horse out there than with an ATV or anything like that.

You can get a little bit closer, right on in them.

Check on everybody.

So, your horse and Ray have been going out a few times.

We're going to stick Lindsey on Pokey, too, to give her some experience and let her send us off while she cooks us dinner.

Does that sound good?

Sounds great.

MAGGIE: After we talked to Derek outside the barn, we were able to get on our horses and go out to the pasture and check on the cattle and we even got Lindsey on the horse.

I think it was telling that my horse's name was Pokey.

But it was a really nice experience.

Pokey was the right speed for me and it was really fun to wave Maggie and Derek off into the fields and then head back into the kitchen to create a feast with them to enjoy after the hard work.

While you all were herding the cattle, I've been getting a head start on our dinner.

And I'm really very excited and grateful that Derek and his wife, Jessie, and then Mary and Steve are going to be joining us for dinner this evening.

And we are going to make a really nice fall feast for them alongside some beautiful steaks.

- Great.

- So, we're going to start by making a winter squash of potato gratin.

This is a recipe I love because it's extremely simple and it can change with the seasons.

It's a potato gratin, but instead of making it all potato, we're getting vegetables in there by using really any sort of winter squash, so butternut works great.

I mean you could do delicata and leave the skin on if you wanted.

- But you're miss pumpkin.

- Yeah.

So, we're going to go with pumpkin as some of our layers.

So, tell me about this pumpkin you've picked.

So, this is a Long Island cheese.

It's one of my favorites to grow.

They always seem to just turn out perfect and this is a really good example of when it's smooth, it's flat on the bottom, it's evenly shaped.

So, this is a good one to cook with because it'll be easy to handle.

Perfect.

You all have been working hard out with those horses, with the cattle.

So, this is a stick-to-your-ribs meal.

But I also think it's really elegant.

Gratins are beautiful.

I love when you cut into them and you can see the different layers.

One of the reasons this one is fun is because of the color of the pumpkin with the white potato and I just think it's really pretty and it's going to be super delicious and warm and hearty.

So, we've got just really-- - Whoa, look at that steam.

- Yeah.

Beautiful heavy cream.

You want to get it right to this point where it's not boiling or anything, but it is very warm because that way, it's going to absorb these aromatics we're going to add.

So, I have grated garlic, grated onion, and grated fresh ginger.

So, we're just going to add all of that directly into our cream.

And why do you grate it instead of chop it?

Well, in this case, I just really want it to kind of melt into the cream, but you could absolutely chop it in that case.

Also with this, I'm going to just leave it in there and we're going to pour this over our potato.

So this is what our potato and our pumpkin is going to cook with.

It's going to absorb this heavy cream and so, that way, we don't have to strain it out.

There are big chunks, but definitely, that would be an option, too.

So, we're definitely going to add some salt and pepper, but I want to add our fall herbs.

So, let's just do a sprig of rosemary.

- Okay.

- In there.

- Just the whole sprig?

- Yeah, and I'm just going to kind of just rub it just a little bit because that just kind of gets those oils out.

But we'll remove the sprig before, same thing with our thyme, and we will add at the end, before we put it into bake, some fresh thyme in there on top, too.

So, we'll do a few, if you want to do a few cracks of pepper.

Perfect.

And we're going to go -- yeah, that's pretty good.

And a few good pitches of salt.

We definitely want to be generous here with this because this is what everything's cooking in, so you have to think about we're going to -- this is what seasoning was, so that's perfect.

Then, traditionally, with a lot of these cream sauces, there's, almost always, a pinch of nutmeg.

So, just kind of, again, bringing the season in, so just do a little pinch of that.

Got a spoon here.

And if you want to give me that top back, we're just going to stir this up.

We'll just put the lid on the pot and just keep this warm and it'll hang out getting extra delicious while we finish the rest of our cooking.

So, start about breaking down this pumpkin.

So, I've been practicing, and honestly, there's no elegant way to do it.

When I was like, "Okay, I got to do this in front of Lindsey.

Yeah, all right, okay."

So, I'd like to see if I can get just like a couple flat surfaces so then I have some evenness so then I don't cut myself.

LINDSEY: And that's safe.

MAGGIE: Yes, it's very safe.

So, I'm going to make a flat surface here and then I'm just going to shave off the bottom.

And I think especially when you're working with large pumpkins, squash, anything that is this dense and hard.

Getting that flat surface is super important.

Oh my gosh.

Perfect.

It's perfect.

MAGGIE: So, now, we have two flat spots to work with.

And we'll, of course, compost all these bits, so I'm not too worried because it's going to turn back into earth of too much waste.

And then, you'll grow more pumpkins - in that earth.

- Exactly.

- Look at that!

- I know.

Good job.

You're working really hard today and anyway, in the kitchen and out.

While you finish that, I'm going to grab the potatoes I've already used the mandoline for.

And then we are going to get this sliced super thin like our potatoes.

So, would you like this in chunks?

You know what, this will be in whatever way you can cut it off easily.

So, we're going for yummy and homey here, - not perfection, - [laughs] LINDSEY: but it's going to taste fantastic no matter what.

So, what we want, though, the most important thing is that everything is sliced at the same thickness.

So, you can absolutely use a really sharp knife and just cut everything as thinly as possible.

If you have a mandolin, this is a fantastic time to use it.

Be careful, they come with guards, or gloves, use them.

It is what they're there for because they do keep everything nice and even, but they also are very sharp and can cause an accident super quick.

So, I'm going to go ahead.

I've already done these potatoes.

I have it on my thickest setting on the mandoline because I want to have some meatiness to the potato, or to the gratin.

I want to have a nice bite to it, but I also don't want it to be so thick that they don't cook too quickly.

So, I'll let you get some good chunks to make-- MAGGIE: Yeah.

I'll take out that center, too.

LINDSEY: And what we're going to do is just layer this and make it really pretty and delicious.

So, the chunks are just -- however we can work with them will be great.

So, I just do it nice and slow-- it's so handy-- and then, I'm going to get my guard out and put this on here.

It just kind of clamps down on there and then you can get going.

Also, it does cut down the time.

If you have one, it's pretty handy.

But again, a really nice sharp knife will work.

So, what we're going to do is we're just going to layer it in this casserole dish.

You can do it in different ways.

I've done it where it's like one layer of potato, one layer of squash; you just alternate.

You could do mixing and matching each layer.

So, whatever we feel like doing, just kind of however creative we do or don't feel.

I'm going to get a start with this.

I'm probably going to chop that in half.

I think the ultimate rule here is just whatever feels the sturdiest and safest is what we want to go with.

I know I said use the guard and I do mean it, but I'm going to get started until it's low enough.

So, right in here, my hands are high up, and I'm just going to go slow and careful with it.

All right, so we want just about the same amount.

And that's what's nice, too.

This can feed a crowd.

I have approximately 3 cups of cream in here.

This is 6 potatoes.

It's a Yukon Gold potato, which I highly recommend because they're really creamy.

They're grown here.

It's just a variety of potato local farm.

But, I mean, you can see how much starch is in here; that will be sort of let off and absorb the cream.

And people talk about Yukon Gold mashed potatoes.

That's because they're really creamy potatoes.

So, it's going to make for a really delicious creamy gratin.

And we're going to be having some ribeyes and strip steak.

Some are from your grass-fed cattle here at the farm and the other are rose veal from the Berry Center.

It's not veal in the sense that we're used to hearing.

Veal sometimes has negative connotations.

And we're eating them -- the cut is a steak.

So, it's that much too-- It's already developed enough to have steaks.

Yes.

Oh, I'm super excited to start.

And the ribeyes are a very good size, too, and it includes the bone, which I absolutely love because one of my favorite things is just to grill a nice piece of meat on the bone and then you have that delicious boniness that you're able to gnaw on.

Nothing better than that.

- Oh my gosh.

- Yeah.

I'm very excited.

Okay.

So, I think while I continue to slice these thinly-- we don't need too much more-- I'm going to go ahead and get you started.

- On layering?

I can layer.

- On layering and assembling.

I might suggest, whatever it is, we just want to make the layers relatively full.

So, the potatoes, you'll cover the bottom, and then you can use some of the odd bits to cover any little holes and when you do one layer, what we're going to do again, we're really going to make sure everything tastes extra-- A little sprinkle of salt.

Not too much, but nothing seasoned here.

Little crack of pepper, and then a lot of recipes call for just putting cheese on top of their gratins.

I like to do a layer of Parmesan at each part.

We're on the same page.

Just a nice little shower.

At the end, we will do a really pretty heavy shower of Parmesan on top to get a nice brown bubbly surface at the end.

Just about everything in this dish is seasonal grown locally right now.

I mean the cream is some cream that we have from a dairy that we've gotten to know.

The ginger and the garlic are all from local farmers as are the onions that I had in there.

So, to me, it's the herbs, it just speaks to "this is a seasonal dish," but I do think when you make it, it's important to use that heavy cream because, generally speaking, it's a rich yummy.

You don't think of gratin as taking it light.

- [laughs] - No.

And I've always called it a gratin.

Okay.

Well, that's-- Yeah, I think either pronunciation would be fine.

If you have a kiddo that likes to get involved, this is a great recipe.

Obviously, keep them away from the mandolines and the knife, but once you have this part, what fun for them.

The layer, everything, make their own shapes, really, really great way for them to play.

And you can make this as thin or as tall as you want.

Cooking time will vary based on that, so we're looking at about an hour, give or take.

I'm just looking for everything to be super brown and bubbly on top and for a fork to go through easily so you know the layers are cooked.

They do cook relatively quickly because they are thin.

But also, you don't want to cook it too, too fast where the top gets too dark or browns too much and then the potatoes don't quite have a chance-- and the squash-- to cook through.

I mean every oven is slightly different in temperature, so I would cook anywhere between 350 and 400, depending on how hot your oven is.

And also, we're grating fresh Parmesan, you could certainly use pre-grated.

I just always really like to work with a nice block of Parmesan and the freshly grated adds that much more, like that flavor is just really going to come through.

So, I think this'll be our final layer.

Yes.

You could do a pretty design on the top.

I know.

I was thinking like, "Can I not keep stacking?"

You can keep stacking, but it'll add a little bit more time to the cook, but there's nothing wrong with that either.

- We got some hungry folks.

- We do.

And so, you can see how this is going to serve everybody really nicely and this will serve about 6 to 8, this size we have here.

Okay.

So, a nice seasoning up here, you do that and then we're going to go a little bit heavier on the Parmesan for the tops.

You could certainly work with another cheese.

Think about the heaviness.

Parmesan is light, it's generally a lower lactose cheese, it melts well.

So, keep that in mind.

If you were to put a cheddar on here, there wouldn't be anything wrong, but that's a lot heavier, so this kind of gives you that cheesiness, but also, keeping in mind we've got this cream coming.

So, speaking of, let's take off our top.

I'll just set it right down in here.

We'll give it one more little stir and then Maggie, if you want to grab another sprig of fresh thyme.

I kind of like to just pluck off a handful of the thyme leaves to put on top.

Do you want me to chop them before I put them on top?

You can just sprinkle them.

- A little.

- Yeah.

Oh yeah, exactly.

I wouldn't do rosemary just because rosemary is really strong.

I think it's a nice addition to the seasoning of the cream.

So, I'm going to go ahead and pour.

Here you go.

But you want it to just about cover everybody We can see all that garlic and ginger.

Mm-hmm.

All right, I'm going to do one last.

- Okay, I'll do one last thyme.

- Yeah, sorry about that.

MAGGIE: Oh, I'm glad it got it all through.

LINDSEY: It does.

MAGGIE: There we go.

LINDSEY: All right.

So, we're going to pop this in the oven and let it bake and while it's baking, one thing, when I have particularly a ribeye or a strip steak that has some nice marbling through it and fat, I think it's really nice to have a sauce to complement that that has a high acid bite to just kind of really cut through that fatty part.

And so, a chimichurri is something I really like and chimichurri is a sauce that originated in Argentina but is very malleable.

So, carrots are obviously in season right now and I thought why don't we throw some carrot tops in to our chimichurri sauce, which is normally just a very herb-based sauce.

So we've got some fresh parsley, some carrot tops.

We're going to mix that with just a little bit of red wine vinegar for that punch, some garlic, and that'll be a great accompaniment for our steaks.

So, let's get this baking and we'll whip up the sauce real quick.

So, like I said, I love chimichurri because I think it's really adaptable into the season.

We've made a ranch chimichurri before in the spring and why not make good use of these carrot tops?

You could try beet tops with it, turnip tops.

I mean the harder the green, the more you're really going to want to puree it just to get that really rough, harder green vibe out of it.

But I also think this just gives a nice earthy root vegetable vibe to the sauce, - which is fantastic.

- Great.

Cook in the season and we'll hold onto the carrots to throw in our salad that we're going to have alongside.

So, real straightforward here, I'm just going to cut off, or, really, rip off, I don't know.

What do you call it?

- Half cup?

- Yeah.

- Half cup.

- A bunch.

Yeah, a bunch.

I do think, here, working with a food processor, you could certainly chop if you didn't have one, really, really fine.

But a food processor is your friend in this case.

So, we are going to keep some parsley in there for some brightness.

So, I'm going to keep the stems, just a real nice chop.

MAGGIE: And is it traditionally all parsley?

I think you can mix some cilantro in.

My brother-in-law is from Argentina and so, he has his family chimichurri recipe and I think that's sort of one of those like, "In our family, we do it this way, or that way."

So, I've seen it a couple different ways with mainly parsley and some cilantro.

So, it just kind of, I think it just depends, but works well with both.

So, we're going to throw that in, now we're going to do just a nice clove of garlic.

MAGGIE: That is a nice clove.

- I know, right?

- That's a big one.

Oh my gosh.

And so fresh.

- Oh yeah.

- This is so fresh.

We're going to smell good tonight.

Oh, I love it.

I love it, I love it, I love it, though.

I like to throw some lime juice in mine.

We're going to have some red wine vinegar in there, too.

But I just think the brightness of the lime with the vinegar is just a nice compliment.

So, we're going to start with half a lime and then this is definitely a "taste as you go" type of sauce.

We'll add and adjust as needed.

And that's a juicy lime.

Very juicy lime.

So, I'm going to add about a couple of tablespoons, maybe about 3, of the red wine vinegar.

I'm going to hold back some just because that can be quite a kick.

- And speaking of kick.

- Yeah.

Red pepper flakes.

Now, these are not just any red pepper flakes.

Tell us a little about what we've got here.

Yeah, so I grow the cayenne peppers on the farm and then dry them and grind them and it's crossed red pepper flakes à la Foxhollow.

And because it is fresh and hasn't been sitting on a shelf for like 3 years, it is very piquant.

It is definitely going to come through, so a pinch goes a long way.

That's what we went with.

I'd say that scant a quarter teaspoon, probably, of red pepper flakes.

So, a couple of healthy nice little round of salt using kosher salt here.

If you want to do some cracks of pepper.

Of course, I feel like I'm the official pepper gal.

You are really good at the pepper shaker, or pepper grinder, I should say.

Okay.

So, we're going to get this part blended and then we will add our olive oil in.

Then we'll taste, we'll go -- chimichurri is a looser sauce, so it is going to be pretty saucy, for lack of better phrasing.

But that, again, it can make it just to your liking, too.

So, I'm going to go ahead and just do a few pulses, and, like I mentioned, I really do want to break this down very thinly.

We're going to scrape down the sides, too.

The carrot tops are good but, I mean, I love using the whole carrot.

They do have some toothsomeness to that, so we want to make sure-- We don't want to be chewing our cud - throughout the meal.

- Exactly.

We're not cows, as much as we love them.

So, the olive oil we're going to add here will help get that going along, but we'll go ahead and just pulse it a little bit more and then we're just going to take out this and we're going to let it run and add some oil through the feed tube.

All right.

I'm going to let that hang out for a little bit longer, then we'll do a bit of a taste test and adjust as necessary.

Okay.

So, yeah, we're definitely getting more to the texture.

So I'm just going to do a little test.

I don't know if you want to get a spoon.

Just see what we think and how we need to adjust from here.

I think it's pretty tasty.

I want cook it down.

I want to blend it a little bit more.

I see what you mean about the carrot tops; there is that kind of grittiness.

But the more you puree it in there, the less you have that and the more you're just left with that.

I think what's fun is I don't necessarily think carrot, but I think root vegetable.

Me, too.

It's got that earth in there.

So, we'll let that go.

I'm going to add just a bit more olive oil.

It definitely has that nice acidic punch, though.

Yeah, the flavor was on point.

I think we did well by that.

All right.

So, it's definitely coming down a little bit more.

And I love chimichurri-- obviously, we're having it with steaks, but-- on your eggs in the morning, tacos, anything like that.

It's blended down a lot more.

- A lot better.

- Yes.

That's a good thing to know all the time.

Just keep blending.

- Keep blending.

- [laughs] All right, let's put this in that container and our guests are about to be here.

We'll get the gratin out the oven and we'll dive in.

Yeah.

Well, I'm going to start serving up our gratin too, so Mary, after you.

Yes, that would be perfect.

Cheers to the farmer and the foodie.

Oh, thank you.

Cheers.